Nigerian Senate on Wednesday passed the 2022 budget of N17.1 trillion against the N16.39 trillion sum presented by President Muhammadu Buhari in October.
The passage of the bill was sequel to a report laid on the floor of the Senate by the Chairman, senate Appropriation Committee, Senator Barau Jibrin.
The budget was increased by N735.8 billion, just as was the case in the House of Representatives.
Presenting the committee’s report, Senator Barau said the oil price benchmark for the 2022 budget has been increased from $57 per barrel proposed by the executive to $62 to reflect the current market values of the oil barrel in the international market.
In passing the bill, the budget deficit was increased by N98 billion to accommodate some other requests of national importance which have not been captured in the budget estimates and which could not be covered by the revenue increase.
Although the major capital, recurrent, debt service, statutory transfers remain untouched, the Senate made provision for an increase by N400 billion for agencies that came forward with financial reports which were not captured in the proposed budget, such as INEC, Ministries of Humanitarian Affairs, the National Assembly, among others.
Senate also made provision for 10 percent of monies recovered by EFCC and the National Financial Intelligence Unit to be utilised by the agencies for their operations, to strengthen their fight against corruption.
President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan lauded the lawmakers who worked so hard to ensure that the 2022 budget was passed in time to keep with the new tradition of operating an annual national budget from January to December.
Meanwhile, the Senate has also approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for the virement of N276,757,232,395 billion to fund expenditures in the 2021 budget, which lifespan was also extended for another three months.
Dominica Nwabufo
